epeated the old woman. She looked surprised that any one
could ask such a question. "Of course I'm rich. Haven't I got two eyes
in my head, and a tongue, too, and it's lucky, indeed, that it's that
way about, for if I had but one eye and two tongues, you see for
yourself how much less handy that would be! And I've two legs as good
as any one's, and two hands to help myself with! The Kaiser himself has
no more legs and arms than I, and I doubt if he can use them half as
well. Neither has he a stomach the more! And as for his heart" she
looked cautiously around as she spoke "his heart, I'll be bound, is not
half so good as mine! If it were, he could not find it in it to do all
the cruel things he's doing here. I'm sure of that."

For a moment the cheerfulness of her face clouded over; but she saw the
shadow reflected in the faces of Jan and Marie, and at once spoke more
gayly. "Bless you, yes, I'm rich," she went on; "and so are you! You've
got all the things that I have and more, too, for you legs and arms are
young, and you have a mother to look for. Not every one has that, you
may depend! And one of these days you'll find her. Make no doubt of
that."

"If we don't, she'll surely find us, anyway," said Jan. "She said she
would!"

"Indeed and she will," said the old woman. "Even the Germans couldn't
stop her; so what matter is it, if you both have to look a bit first?
It will only make it the better when you find each other again."

When the potatoes were done, the little old woman raked them out of the
ashes with a stick, broke them open, sprinkled a bit of salt on them
from the wonderful basket, and then handed one to each of the children,
wrapped in a plantain leaf, so they should not burn their fingers. A
piece of the eel was served to them in the same way, and Granny beamed
with satisfaction as she watched her famished guests.

"Aren't you going to eat, too?" asked Marie with her mouth full.

"Bless you, yes," said Granny. "Every chance I get. You just watch me!"
She made a great show of taking a piece of the eel as she spoke, but if
any one had been watching carefully, they would have her slyly put it
back again into the pan, and the children never knew that they ate her
share and their own, too.

When they had eaten every scrap of the eel, and Fidel had finished the
bones, the little old woman rose briskly from the bank, washed her pan
in the river, packed it in her basket again, and led the way up the
pat